Ruby check if nil before calling method

Question

I have a string in Ruby on which I\'m calling the strip method to remove the leading and trailing whitespace. e.g.

s = \"12345 \"
s.strip

H

Answer 1

I'd opt for a solution where s can never be nil to start with.

You can use the || operator to pass a default value if some_method returns a falsy value:

s = some_method || '' # default to an empty string on falsy return value
s.strip

Or if s is already assigned you can use ||= which does the same thing:

s ||= '' # set s to an empty string if s is falsy
s.strip

Providing default scenario's for the absence of a parameters or variables is a good way to keep your code clean, because you don't have to mix logic with variable checking.